Word: gardini
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Umberto Eco derides his country for staging formal religious services for two public figures who recently took their lives. Deeply involved in the scandals coming to light, Gardini and Cagliari had little chance of salvaging any part of their professional lives...
From there Gardini masterminded Ferruzzi-Montedison's 1989 joint venture with ENI, which made him a global giant -- and began his downfall. From the start, there were rumors that kickbacks had been paid to political parties in return for approving the deal. Gardini soon found himself in conflict with Cagliari, ENI's ambitious chief. Each man controlled 40% of Enimont, but the Ferruzzi boss tried to tip the balance by having friends purchase a majority of the outstanding 20% stock. In the end Cagliari prevailed, and in November 1990 ENI bought out Gardini's stake at an apparently politically sanctioned...
...dismantling of Enimont was a major blow, but there was worse to come. In 1991 other family members balked at his attempt to pass control of the Ferruzzi empire to his children. Gardini, his wife and children split from the rest of the family, consoled by a golden handshake estimated at $380 million...
...might have walked away a rich if restless man, since investigators could not untangle his schemes without some inside help. But they found their songbird last month, when Gardini's successor at Montedison was arrested and extradited from Switzerland. Giuseppe Garofano was brought back to Milan and immediately began giving investigators a detailed rundown of the company's double bookkeeping and multimillion-dollar payoffs to politicians. He gave them enough to issue warrants for the arrest of five top Ferruzzi executives, including Gardini...
Aware that his former partner Cagliari killed himself after being told he could not leave jail while the investigation into his misdeeds proceeded, Gardini apparently decided not to endure a similar imprisonment. "He was a fighter and he had tremendous pride," says one of his friends, author and columnist Enzo Biagi. "Most of all he valued his freedom." On the morning of July 23 Gardini woke at 7 a.m., took a shower and scanned the newspaper headlines. One read: GAROFANO ACCUSES GARDINI. Next to the bed where he killed himself, he left a one-word note to his family...